Cops, license plate readers are obsolete. You can now track us closer.

This week, the California State Senate approved a bill that would create the nation’s first electronic license plate. Having already passed the state’s assembly, the bill now goes to Gov. Jerry Brown (D) for his signature.

The idea is that rather than have a static piece of printed metal adorned with stickers to display proper registration, the plate would be a screen that could wirelessly (likely over a mobile data network) receive updates from a central server to display that same information. In an example shown by a South Carolina vendor, messages such as “STOLEN,” “EXPIRED,” or something similar could also be displayed on a license plate.

The bill’s language says that for now, the program would be limited to a “pilot program” set to be completed no later than January 1, 2017.

“The pilot program shall be limited to no more than 0.5 percent of registered vehicles for the purpose of road testing and evaluation,” the bill states.

Other states, including South Carolina and New Jersey, also have similar bills in progress. A South Carolina company, Compliance Innovations, did not immediately respond to Ars’ request for comment. That company has been leading the charge in the Palmetto State to implement electronic license plates.

State isn’t getting location data directly, for now

Not surprisingly, though, privacy concerns abound. After all, if the state’s authorities can send and receive data to your digital license plate, then they have to know where you are. That would make the use of the increasingly ubiquitous license plate readers completely irrelevant—law enforcement likely would be able to either directly access location data in real-time and/or get historical travel data.

The state senator who introduced the bill, Sen. Ben Hueso, a Democrat who represents San Diego, did not respond to Ars’ multiple requests for an interview or comment. It still remains unclear as to exactly why this bill was proposed and what its objectives are. The precise technical details of the program are similarly unclear, as is how long plate information would be retained and who would have access to it.

Update Tuesday September 9, 12:00am CT: Lourdes Jimenez, Hueso's spokesperson said by e-mail that the bill would "provide this authorization and create statutory parameters for the [Department of Motor Vehicles] testing of alternative technologies, while still providing flexibility on program and testing details."

Still, privacy advocates are skeptical.

“We've been talking to Sen. Hueso on the bill, and it's gotten some amendments that address some of the location privacy issues—within the pilot, the DMV would not be receiving any location information,” Lee Tien, a staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), told Ars. “But the company that operates the plates would [have access, and] they are going to be controlling what's on the plates.”

The privacy advocate likened the proposed system to a moving wiretap that reveals an individual’s vehicle location constantly.

California leaning towards a small, unknown startup

Various local media have reported that the state's Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) would save $20 million in postage by not having to mail renewal stickers. The DMV did not immediately respond to Ars’ request to confirm this figure. Further, the bill—known officially as SB 806—did not originate with the DMV.

“The California Department of Motor Vehicles does not have a position on SB 806,” Artemio Armenta, a DMV spokesperson, told Ars in July 2013.

Update 7:34pm CT: Armenta also confirmed to Ars that "postage costs associated with vehicle licensing and registration does exceed $20 million annually."

But the state senate’s five-page analysis (PDF) notes that one San Francisco-based company would stand to gain from this test, particularly if it gets the green light:

A supporter of this bill is Smart Plate Mobile, a company that holds a patent on a digital electronic license plate, which is essentially a computer screen that can take on the size and appearance of a standard California license plate (i.e., a 12” by 6” white, reflectorized rectangle with blue characters and “California” in red across the top). This product also allows that screen, once a vehicle comes to a stop for four seconds or longer, to display a different image on the plate such as an advertisement. This bill does not authorize the display of anything other than the existing California license plate on a screen, but thus far it appears that Smart Plate is the company most interested in participating in such a pilot project. Smart Plate has offered to make its product available to DMV to test.

Smart Plate Mobile’s founder, Michael Jordan, declined to speak to Ars. The company's website doesn't appear to have been up since earlier in the year.

It’s unclear exactly how Smart Plate Mobile came to be mentioned in the bill's analysis for the pilot, particularly when there are other patent holders on very similar technologies, including General Motors. However, there doesn’t seem to be much evidence that those previous patent holders have done much to advance their technology at the state level.

Smart Plate Mobile’s reported Sacramento lobbyist, Jim Lites, told Ars that the bill is actually about making the DMV more efficient. He added that the DMV, though, “has indicated that they only want to pilot this or other devices with fleet owners,” such as a delivery company like UPS or FedEx or something similar.

“Large fleet owners do not have any more efficient process for renewing their registration than you and I do for one or two cars,” Lites noted. “The talk has been that the efficiency is to be gained in the fleets and let's start there. Until the DMV comes up with regulations as to how they’re going to implement the pilot, it won’t affect anyone.”

Jimenez added late Monday that the state has yet to choose a vendor.

"SB 806 does not have a sponsor, nor is it tailored to any specific product," she added. "This bill simply authorizes the DMV to work with qualified vendors to test new products. If this bill passes, all vendors will have to go through a public Request for Proposals (RFP) process before DMV contracts out."

She also added that the pilot program was "not only for commercial fleets."

Still, the lobbyist also seemed to dismiss the privacy concerns, saying that ordinary citizens shouldn’t have anything to worry about.

“It just happens to coincide with the NSA issues and the surveillance cameras all over the place—this is not designed or intended to interact with that,” he said.

The EFF’s Lee Tien and other civil libertarians clearly don’t see it this way.

“We are worried about any kind of location tracking issue,” he said. “In its pilot phase, we thought that getting a bunch of privacy protections at the beginning [was the best way to go], and we're asking and requiring them to get a report to the legislature. I've talked already to the state DMV privacy officer; we're expecting to continue to monitor this [situation].”

Jimenez also noted that there are some privacy-minded "parameters."

"For example, AB 806 has the following provisions: 1) specify that the pilot is voluntary; 2) prohibit DMV to receive or retain GPS data; 3) report of all tested products and their features, specifically those that include the ability for GPS tracking," she wrote by e-mail.

Who gets to pay for a new screen when this one is broken/vandalized?If someone is robbing a bank, and their getaway car's license plate is an advertisement for Cheetos, I'm not sure that would be very good.What about when the car is powered off? No licence plate then? I'm immune from parking tickets!How does this work in the cold? Where I live it gets cold enough to freeze the balls off a polar bear.How does this work in the heat? When sitting in direct sunlight, things get pretty toasty...... And that's just off the top of my head, and ignores obvious privacy problems.

the state's Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) would save $20 million in postage by not having to mail renewal stickers.

Can people renew their insurance over the phone or online in the US? Mailing stickers isn't an issue in Canada (or BC anyway) because you have to go in to an insurance broker to renew, and they just hand you the sticker.

the state's Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) would save $20 million in postage by not having to mail renewal stickers.

Can people renew their insurance over the phone or online in the US? Mailing stickers isn't an issue in Canada (or BC anyway) because you have to go in to an insurance broker to renew, and they just hand you the sticker.

You can renew online in California, although you have to go get a smog check every other year. In both cases, you are mailed your registration and sticker.

This is a terrible idea. One, there's no legitimate administrative reason to ever need to "change" a license plate. Two, this will be hacked/cloned/copied and make things far easier for criminals. I'm all for advancing tech, but I just don't see any benefits to this at all. If you want to go after people with expired registrations, just get a warrant or send them a ticket.

Quote:

Can people renew their insurance over the phone or online in the US?

The stickers aren't for insurance, they are for the registration (yearly tax).

the state's Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) would save $20 million in postage by not having to mail renewal stickers.

Can people renew their insurance over the phone or online in the US? Mailing stickers isn't an issue in Canada (or BC anyway) because you have to go in to an insurance broker to renew, and they just hand you the sticker.

Well, registration stickers for license plates are from the DMV in CA. Most insurance companies can't or don't offer DMV services such as registration. But AAA does for it's insured customers, which I believe includes picking up your registration sticker in person if you so choose.

But yeah... this just screams all types of concerns from across the board: privacy, cost/effectiveness and a huge waste of money on political b.s. that could potentially waste more than that $20 million piling funds into an unsuccessful program....

Edit: while we are add it, take advantage of this tracking capability probably and just add in speed monitoring and automatic speeding tickets.

This is a terrible idea. One, there's no legitimate administrative reason to ever need to "change" a license plate. Two, this will be hacked/cloned/copied and make things far easier for criminals. I'm all for advancing tech, but I just don't see any benefits to this at all. If you want to go after people with expired registrations, just get a warrant or send them a ticket.

Quote:

Can people renew their insurance over the phone or online in the US?

The stickers aren't for insurance, they are for the registration (yearly tax).

A supporter of this bill is Smart Plate Mobile, a company that holds a patent on a digital electronic license plate, which is essentially a computer screen that can take on the size and appearance of a standard California license plate...

You have to be shitting me. They have a patent that basically amounts to displaying a particular image on a screen?

Skimming through the disclosure, it looks like they vary what's displayed and at what intensity (for power saving, etc.) depending on the speed of the vehicle. Woo.

I hope everyone can opt out of this fiasco, an obvious situation of a company paying off legislators to get their product forced onto the taxpayers. I expect to see license plate jammers on the market in the next few months to nullify this threat.

Next the license plate will advertise the fact that the driver exceeded the speed limit and trigger a traffic ticket, all electronic of course. Maybe they can even arrange a bank draft to pay the ticket.

Who gets to pay for a new screen when this one is broken/vandalized?If someone is robbing a bank, and their getaway car's license plate is an advertisement for Cheetos, I'm not sure that would be very good.What about when the car is powered off? No licence plate then? I'm immune from parking tickets!How does this work in the cold? Where I live it gets cold enough to freeze the balls off a polar bear.How does this work in the heat? When sitting in direct sunlight, things get pretty toasty...... And that's just off the top of my head, and ignores obvious privacy problems.

These, and:

* Even if the system isn't designed to give location information to .gov, what's to stop .gov from exploiting inevitable weaknesses in the design to get that info anyway, when they want it? Perhaps even long after the fact, using the "log" files of the system used to ferry data around for these things. Oh yeah, sorry, I forgot, that's why we have "Policy".

* How can we be sure what the thing says? Is some stupid hacker going to do the equivalent of sticking a sticker on my back as I drive around?

* Who's going to stop ME from hacking it to say something cool and denying that I had any knowledge about it when I get stopped?

* Presumably this thing is going to ping out, so what's going to stop anyone from intercepting that? Even if they can't hack in, perhaps they can get enough Metadata to spoil my privacy.

I'm sure there's even more problems with this... not the least of which is that existing cars probably aren't set up to support some power draw in that place.

And anyway, I don't see how these screens are going to save any real cost for the state. I imagine each screen is going to be orders of magnitude more expensive than having some prisoners in a workshop pressing out plates, not to mention the infrastructure to support this.

Frankly, this is one of those proposals that make no sense with the information given. The only way it makes sense is if .gov has some longer-term plan for these that they aren't sharing. And I sense surveillance being a prime motivator.

EDIT: Point being, I don't want the damn government sticking electronics in my means of conveyance. Period.

the state's Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) would save $20 million in postage by not having to mail renewal stickers.

Can people renew their insurance over the phone or online in the US? Mailing stickers isn't an issue in Canada (or BC anyway) because you have to go in to an insurance broker to renew, and they just hand you the sticker.

If/when you renew online through the DMV, you get mailed a sticker. If you renew through a company (similar to what you describe, AAA provides that service in the U.S. if you are a member) they just hand you a sticker. Of course, that sticker came from the state of California, so it still had to be mailed to them.

Seems to me that saving $20 million in postage isn't relevant unless everything else is equal. How much does it cost to have license plates stamped and printed vs. having these e-plates produced by the exclusive contractor? The number of ways this could go wrong, ignoring the logistics of it, is staggering.

This is a terrible idea. One, there's no legitimate administrative reason to ever need to "change" a license plate. Two, this will be hacked/cloned/copied and make things far easier for criminals. I'm all for advancing tech, but I just don't see any benefits to this at all. If you want to go after people with expired registrations, just get a warrant or send them a ticket.

Quote:

Can people renew their insurance over the phone or online in the US?

The stickers aren't for insurance, they are for the registration (yearly tax).

Ah yeah, missed that the OP assumed it was insurance being renewed.

Sorry, I'm not aware of how things work outside Canada. Here, vehicle registration and insurance are pretty much the same thing. I renew my insurance, and I get a new expiry sticker to put on my plate and a new set of registration papers.

the state's Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) would save $20 million in postage by not having to mail renewal stickers.

Can people renew their insurance over the phone or online in the US? Mailing stickers isn't an issue in Canada (or BC anyway) because you have to go in to an insurance broker to renew, and they just hand you the sticker.

Some (many?) states allow registration online, but they have to be able to verify your insurance is still active. Kentucky (where I live), for instance, offers it for an additional $5 "handling" fee, but for some reason I can't do it b/c my insurance company isn't a partner in whatever registry they have. Odd, considering it's State Farm- one of the biggest in the USA, but it's Kentucky, and we're just that backwards technologically. So, I get to truck my ass to the county clerk's office every year (because you can only renew in the county you're registered in even though the plates are administered by the state and may have a different county sticker on them), wait in line for an hour and a half, and spend $70 on a 1x1.5" sticker from a pissy desk jockey that hates their bureaucratic life.

...sorry, that turned into more of a rant than I anticipated.

TL;DR: Yes, but you'll probably get charged extra, and YMMV depending on each state's requirements.

This is a terrible idea. One, there's no legitimate administrative reason to ever need to "change" a license plate. Two, this will be hacked/cloned/copied and make things far easier for criminals. I'm all for advancing tech, but I just don't see any benefits to this at all. If you want to go after people with expired registrations, just get a warrant or send them a ticket.

Quote:

Can people renew their insurance over the phone or online in the US?

The stickers aren't for insurance, they are for the registration (yearly tax).

Ah yeah, missed that the OP assumed it was insurance being renewed.

Sorry, I'm not aware of how things work outside Canada. Here, vehicle registration and insurance are pretty much the same thing. I renew my insurance, and I get a new expiry sticker to put on my plate and a new set of registration papers.

In Oregon and probably other states, the car has to be tested for emissions and the driver has to provide proof of insurance. Here, we have to physically drive to a DMV test station and if the car passes, you are handed a new sticker on the spot.

If these get updated over the cell network, what happens when you go into out-of-network coverage areas? Who pays the support cost if the license plate's "phone" breaks? What does it display if the phone breaks? How can it tell that the phone is broken and not just "in the middle of effing nowhere, ND"? How does this work with flashes and cameras in traffic-monitoring situations? How do you use them on old cars? How much more than regular plates do they cost, and do they really expect consumers to be okay with that?

This is another of those hot messes CA seems to generate and be okay with just to keep the south bay employed. Much like how (and here I speak as a commie pinko in the flesh) Nancy Pelosi is all for NSA data monitoring because it keeps Cisco in business, or whatever her "constituency excuse" is.

There's another major safety issue with these. The letters and numbers on CA license plates are raised so that EVEN IF THE CAR IS DESTROYED BY A FIRE AND ALL THE PAINT IS BURNED OFF, the plate is still readable. Electronic plates would be FAR less resilient.

All I know is... This pilot program is just wasted cash that should have been spent on things we need... Like fixing a school, hiring more teachers, keeping car thieves in prison instead of early parole... Etc.

Someone's pocket must have been lined pretty thoroughly with tax payer dollars.

Also what's to stop a thief from just using a cell jammer in the trunk to prevent the plate from reading stolen?

There's another major safety issue with these. The letters and numbers on CA license plates are raised so that EVEN IF THE CAR IS DESTROYED BY A FIRE AND ALL THE PAINT IS BURNED OFF, the plate is still readable. Electronic plates would be FAR less resilient.

Investigators rely on stamped or engraved VINs to identify the vehicle, and license plates are increasingly printed flat.

The $20 million figure for sticker postage is mentioned (I'm assuming annually), but without context. According to this, there are almost 32 million registered vehicles in California. That's $0.63 per vehicle, not exactly an enormous sum.

I don't see how replacing a plate with a screen could possibly save money, even over the entire lifetime of the car (or plate). I'd even guess that the energy required to operate the screen would cost more than 63 cents per year!

The mention of advertising potential is just hideous, but probably points to the true motivation (follow the money and all that).

It seems like a pointless waste of resources all around, with absolutely no benefit to the car owner.

No no no, didn't you see that they spend $20 million in postage mailing out the little registration stickers each year? Clearly the answer to that problem is to equip cars with rather expensive electronic plates that will get hacked and have all sorts of privacy concerns. Factor in the price of postage into the cost of registration, you say? Well that's just crazy talk!

If these get updated over the cell network, what happens when you go into out-of-network coverage areas? Who pays the support cost if the license plate's "phone" breaks? What does it display if the phone breaks? How can it tell that the phone is broken and not just "in the middle of effing nowhere, ND"? How does this work with flashes and cameras in traffic-monitoring situations? How do you use them on old cars? How much more than regular plates do they cost, and do they really expect consumers to be okay with that?

This is another of those hot messes CA seems to generate and be okay with just to keep the south bay employed. Much like how (and here I speak as a commie pinko in the flesh) Nancy Pelosi is all for NSA data monitoring because it keeps Cisco in business, or whatever her "constituency excuse" is.

The existing system requires updates to the license plate number only every 3-10 years. Full-time data service for an electronic replacement system would hardly seem to be a requirement.

This is GREAT news! With the increasing prevalence of license plate scanners, I've been wanting a way to hide my plate any time it isn't absolutely required. Basically it is only necessary when driving on public roadways. With one of these (or more likely a cheap Chinese knock-off that is visually indistinguishable) I will be able to "turn off" my license plate anytime it isn't strictly mandated. Even better I don't have to turn it off and set it blank, I can just put up some other number that changes every single time I park and no one will even notice it isn't my real plate number.

I'm sure they will make it illegal to use a un-sanctioned (or hacked) plate, but how will they know it isn't a kosher plate if it displays a legit number most of the time?

PS - next on my wish list is electro-chromic paint-jobs on cars. Today I am driving a red car, tomorrow it is blue.

The DMV is not paying for the postage and wouldn't save by not having to mail stickers since the cost should already be covered by the car owners registration fee. If anything, the savings should be passed over to the car owners if the system switched to a non-mail (ie pick up) model.

In essence the $20 million expenditure is already paid for so they aren't/shouldn't be any tax-payer money involved with that anyways. So in an ideal system, there are no savings what so ever by switching to a non-mailing system.

Pretty sure that switching to electric plates will be a lot more expensive just to start off and in the long run (increased fuel and electricity usage due to the plates) (higher replacement costs).

And how about issues regarding travelling outside the state or areas where there is no cell coverage? Will the plates still work then? I would assume they would just display the last thing they received.

This is a terrible idea. One, there's no legitimate administrative reason to ever need to "change" a license plate. Two, this will be hacked/cloned/copied and make things far easier for criminals. I'm all for advancing tech, but I just don't see any benefits to this at all. If you want to go after people with expired registrations, just get a warrant or send them a ticket.

The administrative reason for changing license plates is to invalidate old license plates and facilitate changes in the license plate system. Insurance and registration can be verified annually electronically and doesn't require changing the plate, but the system associating drivers, driver licenses, vehicles, and vehicle registrations requires a key value tying them all together, and the license plate does this. But without a way to expire the license plate itself, you can't make administrative changes to how the numbers are assigned and managed. Therefore, the license plates themselves expire, independently of their associated registrations and details.

In a bid to lower state debt, the California State Senate has just passed the first ever bill which will allow advertisements on digital license plates, starting in 2022 your tracking data will be integrated into your license plate, allowing your favorite shopping websites to advertise from the comfort of your license plate to everyone sitting behind you in traffic.

::checks date:: Apparently its april first? This is such a joke. I mean - clearly this couldn't cause any problems at all. I think quite a few people in Cali need to be fired... wish that wasn't so easier said than done sometimes.

Who gets to pay for a new screen when this one is broken/vandalized?If someone is robbing a bank, and their getaway car's license plate is an advertisement for Cheetos, I'm not sure that would be very good.What about when the car is powered off? No licence plate then? I'm immune from parking tickets!How does this work in the cold? Where I live it gets cold enough to freeze the balls off a polar bear.How does this work in the heat? When sitting in direct sunlight, things get pretty toasty...... And that's just off the top of my head, and ignores obvious privacy problems.

I've seen old-school printed and stamped plates fail in the Texas heat (paint peeling off within a year or so), and you have to pay a non-trivial cost to replace them ahead of time. Add in electronics, and these will cost taxpayers far more than they would save on postage or even law-enforcement being able to flag cars as stolen.

* Even if the system isn't designed to give location information to .gov, what's to stop .gov from exploiting inevitable weaknesses in the design to get that info anyway, when they want it? Perhaps even long after the fact, using the "log" files of the system used to ferry data around for these things. Oh yeah, sorry, I forgot, that's why we have "Policy".

* How can we be sure what the thing says? Is some stupid hacker going to do the equivalent of sticking a sticker on my back as I drive around?

* Who's going to stop ME from hacking it to say something cool and denying that I had any knowledge about it when I get stopped?

* Presumably this thing is going to ping out, so what's going to stop anyone from intercepting that? Even if they can't hack in, perhaps they can get enough Metadata to spoil my privacy.

I'm sure there's even more problems with this... not the least of which is that existing cars probably aren't set up to support some power draw in that place.

And anyway, I don't see how these screens are going to save any real cost for the state. I imagine each screen is going to be orders of magnitude more expensive than having some prisoners in a workshop pressing out plates, not to mention the infrastructure to support this.

Frankly, this is one of those proposals that make no sense with the information given. The only way it makes sense is if .gov has some longer-term plan for these that they aren't sharing. And I sense surveillance being a prime motivator.

EDIT: Point being, I don't want the damn government sticking electronics in my means of conveyance. Period.

Which makes me wonder about putting something that looks like the plate over it. Sure, the electronics still work, but it would be enough to visually obfuscate, especially if you chose a common vehicle (say, a white Sentra) for your bank robbery.

If these get updated over the cell network, what happens when you go into out-of-network coverage areas? Who pays the support cost if the license plate's "phone" breaks? What does it display if the phone breaks? How can it tell that the phone is broken and not just "in the middle of effing nowhere, ND"? How does this work with flashes and cameras in traffic-monitoring situations? How do you use them on old cars? How much more than regular plates do they cost, and do they really expect consumers to be okay with that?

This is another of those hot messes CA seems to generate and be okay with just to keep the south bay employed. Much like how (and here I speak as a commie pinko in the flesh) Nancy Pelosi is all for NSA data monitoring because it keeps Cisco in business, or whatever her "constituency excuse" is.

The existing system requires updates to the license plate number only every 3-10 years. Full-time data service for an electronic replacement system would hardly seem to be a requirement.

I think you miss the fact that these would be updated ad hoc, like when stolen or out of registration. So at the least they need to have a data connection when necessary, either push updates or periodically phone home.

It's not like this idea came out of nowhere-- I'm sure everyone here remembers the scene in The Fifth Element where Bruce Willis is told by his car that he has 5 points left on his license after a collision.

In addition to other points made above, I would have to guess that electronic license plates are not as environmentally friendly (a big deal in California) as metal and plastic stickers.

I'm also a bit questionable about the whole "it'll save money" thing. In part, it's the cost of doing business. While minimizing that is a laudable goal, postage seems negligible in the overall picture.

What about just switching registration to every two years when you get smogged? Just bill everything at once and get the sticker when you pass the smog check. Most of those places need to be authorized by the DMV anyway. Or used to be. There seems to be enough gray area crap going on that I'm not even sure what the hell the purpose of it is any more. I understand the end purpose (less pollution), I mean the whole odd and bizarre program.